310 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



III. CARBONACEOUS ROUGHAGES 



492. Excess of roughage injurious. We have seen previously that 

 horses can not live on concentrates alone, even on oats with their straw- 

 like hulls. (107) An excess of roughage, on the other hand, is also in- 

 jurious. When we recall that the stomach of the horse has a capacity 

 of only 19 quarts (35), while the 4 stomachs of a cow may hold 267 

 quarts, it is evident that the horse at hard work cannot well derive most 

 of its nourishment from roughage. Thru carelessness or mistaken kind- 

 ness, the mangers are often kept filled with hay, especially in the case of 

 farm horses. The horse then gorges himself on this provender, with a 

 staring coat, labored breathing, and quick tiring as the least serious, tho 

 probably the most noticeable results. For this animal there should 

 always be a definite, limited daily allowance of hay, given mostly at night 

 when there is ample time for its mastication and digestion. Many di- 

 gestive disturbances are caused by forcing the horse to work with his stom- 

 ach distended by coarse feed. More horses are injured by feeding too 

 much than too little hay. On feeding 1 horse in each of 2 teams doing 

 ordinary farm work all the timothy hay they would eat, in addition to 

 oats, while the others were given about two-thirds as much hay, Clark 35 

 at the Montana Station found that those fed the smaller amount had more 

 life and sweat less. In another trial a horse receiving 7.5 Ibs. of grain 

 daily was allowed all the early-cut timothy hay it wished, and ate so 

 much that it failed to gain in weight, had a staring coat, and lacked life. 



493. Timothy hay. Altho not rich in digestible nutrients, timothy hay 

 is the standard roughage for the horse thruout the northeastern United 

 States. The freedom from dust of good timothy hay commends it as a 

 horse feed, and it is an excellent roughage for animals whose sustenance 

 comes mostly from concentrates. While timothy cut too green makes 

 ' * washy ' ' hay, it should not be allowed to stand until it becomes woody 

 and indigestible. A reasonable allowance of timothy hay is 1 Ib. daily per 

 100 Ibs. of animal. So far as possible the other roughages here considered 

 will be compared with timothy hay as the standard. (312) 



494. Cereal hay. On the Pacific coast, especially in California, the 

 cereal hays barley, wild oat, wheat, etc. are extensively employed as 

 roughages for horses. The excellence of the speed horse and the endur- 

 ance of the work horse of the coast region attest the merits of these feeds. 

 In some cases where racing horses have been sent to the East, cereal hay 

 was forwarded with them for their nourishment. Thruout the Rocky 

 Mountain region oat hay is of considerable importance. Cereal hay may 

 often be advantageously employed for horse feeding in the eastern 

 United States. At the North Carolina Station 36 Burkett found that hay 

 from oats cut in the milk stage compared favorably with clover and cow- 

 pea hay for horses. (318) When cereal hay contains much grain, the 

 allowance of concentrates fed should be reduced accordingly. 



36 Mont. Bui. 95, 1913. 8 N. C. Bui. 189. 



